Financing to advance Obsidian’s lead engineered tumor-infiltrating lymphocyte program in ongoing trials for patients with melanoma and non-small cell lung cancer

BOSTON and Cambridge, Mass., April 3, 2024 – Novo Holdings today announced it joined Obsidian Therapeutics’ oversubscribed USD $160.5 million Series C financing. Proceeds will advance Obsidian’s lead engineered tumor-infiltrating lymphocyte (TIL) program, OBX-115, in its ongoing trials for patients with melanoma and non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). The Company is focused on enrolling patients and reaching key clinical and regulatory milestones, as well as manufacturing scale-up ahead of pivotal trial readiness.

The financing round was led by Wellington Management, and joined by new investors including Novo Holdings, Foresite Capital, Janus Henderson, T. Rowe Price, RTW Investments, Paradigm Capital Management, and Woodline Partners. In connection with the financing, Ray Camahort, Partner in the Venture Investments group at Novo Holdings US will join Obsidian Therapeutics’ Board of Directors.

“The strong demand and support from this syndicate of premier investors is a testament to the promise of OBX-115 for patients with treatment-resistant advanced melanoma,” said Madan Jagasia, M.D., M.S., Chief Executive Officer of Obsidian. “This financing provides funding through key clinical readouts in melanoma and is the catalyst to continue expanding OBX-115 into NSCLC, where we think there is significant potential and high unmet need.”

Developing a safer alternative for patients
Obsidian is a private Cambridge, MA-based biotechnology company developing Tumor Infiltrating Lymphocyte (TIL) therapies for solid tumors, including melanoma and NSCLC. TILs are an established modality that utilizes t-cells harvested from a patient’s tumor that are expanded in the presence of proinflammatory cytokines, and then reintroduced back into the patient to elicit an anti-tumor immune response.

Currently approved TIL therapy is limited by the requirement for co-treatment with the highly toxic cytokine IL-2, which can lead to numerous

severe life-threatening side effects. Obsidian’s genetically engineered TIL therapy OBX-115 eliminates the requirement for co-treatment with IL-2, and initial results from clinical trials show that OBX-115 is potentially as efficacious as currently approved products, with a much better safety profile. This efficacy coupled with a benign side-effect profile would allow for expansion of the TIL addressable patient population, and represents a potentially best-in-class profile.

“Obsidian’s engineered TIL cell therapy is a highly differentiated product and has the potential to bring transformational efficacy to patients with solid tumors,” said Ray Camahort, Partner, Venture Investments, Novo Holdings US. “We look forward to supporting Obsidian’s team on their journey to bring OBX-115 to patients who would otherwise have no options for treatment.”

About Novo Holdings A/S
Novo Holdings is a holding and investment company that is responsible for managing the assets and the wealth of the Novo Nordisk Foundation. The purpose of Novo Holdings is to improve people’s health and the sustainability of society and the planet by generating attractive long-term returns on the assets of the Novo Nordisk Foundation. Wholly owned by the Novo Nordisk Foundation, Novo Holdings is the controlling shareholder of Novo Nordisk A/S and Novonesis A/S (Novozymes A/S) and manages an investment portfolio with a long-term return perspective. In addition to managing a broad portfolio of equities, bonds, real estate, infrastructure and private equity assets, Novo Holdings is a world-leading life sciences investor. Through its Seeds, Venture, Growth, Asia, Bioindustrial and Principal Investments teams, Novo Holdings invests in life science companies at all stages of development. As of year-end 2023, Novo Holdings had total assets of EUR 149 billion. www.novoholdings.dk

About the Novo Nordisk Foundation
The Novo Nordisk Foundation is an independent Danish foundation with corporate interests. It has two objectives: 1) to provide a stable basis for the commercial and research activities of the companies in the Novo Group; and 2) to support scientific, humanitarian and social causes.

The vision of the Foundation is to contribute significantly to research and development that improves the lives of people and the sustainability of society. Since 2010, the Foundation has donated more than DKK 30 billion ($5 billion), primarily for research at public institutions and hospitals in Denmark and the other Nordic countries. Read more at www.novonordiskfonden.dk/en